History of Heat Sink

Heat Sink is a trait that reduces overheat self-damage while firing from the hip. It appears as a trait on Tommy's Matchbook, an Exotic pulse rifle that fires in sustained bursts.

How It Works

Tommy's Matchbook has an intrinsic mechanic called Ignition Trigger that causes the weapon to overheat after 1.6 seconds of sustained fire. While overheating, the weapon's damage increases by 100%, but the user takes self-damage of 9% health every 0.36 seconds until reaching critical health.

Heat Sink reduces the self-damage taken while not aiming down sights. When hip-firing, the overheat damage is reduced to 6.25% health per 0.36 seconds, making continuous fire more sustainable without using a scope. Aiming down sights provides no reduction from this trait.

Weapon and Acquisition

Heat Sink rolls on Tommy's Matchbook as a trait in the curated roll. The weapon itself was introduced in Season 15 and drops from exotic engrams, Xûr, or the Exotic Kiosk in the Tower.

Related Perks

The Tommy's Matchbook catalyst, Heat of the Moment, provides a complementary effect by enabling health recovery while the weapon is overheating, allowing sustained damage without as much penalty.

Other traits like Hand-Laid Stock increase stability for more controlled hip-fire bursts.